Internet-based system and method for distributing interstitial advertisements

ABSTRACT

A system and method for use by website operators and advertisers to place interstitial advertisements on websites. The system uses an Internet dispatcher server and a mass storage device containing one or more databases storing advertisement command files pertaining to placements of advertisements that are stored in an advertisement server. The method comprises the steps of selecting aid files stored in a computer ad server, designating the url for the ad file, the url for the website page where the ad will be displayed, the url for the websites to which a user will be directed depending on the user&#39;s reaction to the advertisement, storing in a dispatcher server database a data string representing the ad placement commands with a url representing a dispatcher server-based application to execute said ad placement commands, and including said data string on said website for launching said dispatcher server command file.

CLAIM OF PRIORITY/CONTINUITY INFORMATION

The present application is a continuation application of pending U.S.nonprovisional application Ser. No. 10/641,104 filed on Aug. 13, 2003.All of said application is incorporated herein by reference in itsentirety, including, without limitation, the other applications anddocuments that are incorporated therein by reference. The benefit of theearlier filing date of said application is claimed pursuant to 35 U.S.C.Section 120.

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN: BE IT KNOWN THAT WE, Brad Krassner, NikolaiMentchoukov and Alan Edwards, each having a correspondence address ofc/o Rich Media Club, LLC, 2399 Collins Avenue, Suite 1008, Miami Beach,Fla. 33139, have invented a new and useful Internet-based system andmethod for distributing interstitial advertisements, of which thefollowing is the Specification.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains materialwhich is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has noobjection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent documentor the patent disclosure as it appears in the Patent and TrademarkOffice Patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyrightrights whatsoever.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

A. Technical Field

The present invention relates generally to methods and systems forcreation and distribution of promotional and informationalcommunications regarding products and services via computer networks.More specifically, the present invention is an Internet-based system andmethod for distributing of interstitial advertisements, includingadvertisements comprising rich media files, providing real-timeinterstitial advertisement viewer activity tracking capability andincluding a relational database for storing data required for commandsthat execute selection, dispatching, tracking and display of saidinterstitial advertisement files previously stored in electronic formatin a server. The present invention also relates to use of said system ina multi-level advertising business method that eliminates problemsrelating to the accurate tracking of sales attributable toadvertisements placed on websites.

B. Background

Internet advertising is a multi-billion dollar industry inherentlydifferent from television and print advertising. Television advertisingimpressions are primarily served from networks such as ABC, NBC and CBSand their affiliates. Print publishing is dominated by establishednational and local periodicals and newspaper publishers. In contrast,the top ten mega portals, such as Yahoo and AOL, serve a minority of allInternet page views. The majority of Internet traffic is served fromsmall special interest and personal websites that operate independently.

Prior art methods of deriving revenue from Internet advertising fallunder two general approaches. The first is a pre-pay or billed cost perimpression, or “CPM,” or cost per click, or “CPC,” model, whereinadvertisers pay publishers to place their advertisement on a websiteaccording to the number of impressions served, or click actions taken onthe advertisement. Usually these transactions are done through a thirdparty agency who receives commissions based on a percentage agencydiscount offered by the publisher.

For the CPM/CPC model to work, a website with heavy traffic must agreeto place an ad that an advertiser will pay for with an establishedadvertising budget. For this method to be effective, the mega portal ornetwork must already be established with significant web traffic tooffer advertisers, and an advertiser's budget must be available to offerwebsite publishers to place the advertising.

The second method is a revenue share model. With this model a publisherplaces an advertisement on his/her website and is compensated with apercentage of the revenue from sales that results from traffic driven tothe buy site from the advertisement. The advertiser is not required topay fees when the ad is placed, but rather, when the add produces asale.

Current revenue share compensation methods are basically flawed in thattheir verification methods essentially boil down to trust. The methodsfor tracking of receipt of and responses to advertisements used in priorsystems have addressed in a relatively inefficient manner. Typically,tracking of Internet-based advertising and user responses to same isaccomplished by redirecting a user's response. First, a connection isestablished with a tracking system that records the user's response tothe URL of the selected ad or link, and then, the destination IP addressURL is provided. If an advertisement placed on a website delivers acustomer to a different website for purchase, there is no way for thewebsite in which the advertisement is placed to know for sure what hashappened once the user arrives at that buy site. The website in whichthe advertisement is placed has no way to know for sure and if it isbeing compensated properly. In addition, the customer may visit the buysite later, making a purchase that would not be linked to theadvertisement placed on the other website.

With most Internet advertising revenue models, payments are often tiedto a function of the number of web users whom the ad reached. But withweb advertisements, accurately ascertaining that number has beendifficult and problematic at best, and, given a basic technique employedto do so, relatively error-prone, causing erroneous counts and adcharges. Ads are usually logged as a “user impression” at a web serverwhen the file is served rather than after the browser has completelyrendered the advertisement to the user. Serving the ad files does notguarantee that the files will be ultimately and completely rendered bythe user's browser. As a result, web server generated “user impression”counts can be grossly over- or under-stated. If a user navigates to anew content page after an advertisement has started playing but beforethat advertisement completes and, by doing so, prematurely terminatedthe advertisement, a full impression is neverthelesslogged—erroneously—since that advertisement was completely served.Additional errors arise if a proxy server is situated between multipleuser computers situated on an intranet or a local area network and a webadvertisement server situated on the Internet. In this case, a requestfrom one of the website user computers for the advertisement files willbe routed to the proxy server, which, in turn, will direct that requestonward to the advertisement web server. The advertisement server servesone complete copy of the advertisement files to the proxy server. Theresulting retrieved advertisement files will be locally cached in theproxy server and, from there, provided to the requesting user'scomputer. Should any of the other user's computers request the samefiles, the proxy server will provide these files, totally unbeknownst tothe advertisement server, from its local cache rather than directing arequest from that other user computer back to the advertisement server.Hence, the advertisement server will be totally oblivious to eachadditional instance in which the proxy server accessed the ad files fromits local cache and disseminated the advertisement to any user'scomputer other than that which first requested the ad. Proxy servers cantherefore result in significant under-counting and under-charges to theadvertiser. In order for Internet advertisements to effectively generaterevenue as an on-going stream of payments to the host of the ads,accurate user accounting is essential to ensure that an advertiser isnot over- or under-charged given an extent to which an ad is actuallydisseminated.

Users of the Internet typically rely on robust applications, such as webbrowsers and browser technology, to handle and maintain the transfer ofinformation between systems. Existing applications to communicate with auser via the Internet are based on the following two methods:

1) Using an Internet browser (such as Netscape and Internet Explorer,for example) that is installed and run on the user's computer tocommunicate with a server.

2) Having the user download and install a custom application on theuser's computer hard drive to communicate with the server.

In method 1), the Internet browser holds specific objects (such as, forexample, the history object of the browser itself, or a custom objectsupported by the browser) which can be recognized by the desired webserver.

In method 2), the custom application installed on the user's computer isused to communicate with the server.

In settings where the intent of the user is to use the browser orapplication, there is little question given to the issue of engagedsystem resources or bandwidth usage, as both are fundamental componentsto the primary activity engaged in by the user. The current practice oflaunching an additional browser window or dedicated application toaccommodate the new media, initiate the connection, or transfer theinformation requires much more computer resources than are actuallyneeded.

With prior art systems, customer and website computer resources aretaxed in requiring the system to launch and maintain an additionalapplication that may well exceed the necessary capabilities required forthe desired communication and, in some cases, even the capabilities ofthe system itself. Additionally, as browsers and networked applicationsare continuously involved in two-way communication between the websiteuser and website server systems involved in the communications, thebandwidth resources available to the communication effort aremonopolized at a level, that although customary, are perhaps more thantruly required.

Advertisers seeking to utilize the global reach of the Internet as aneffective and efficient medium for disseminating advertisements toconsumers have had to deal with various limitations in technology andmethods. Internet advertisements are currently in forms ranging fromstatic ads placed on space provided on website pages, links to ads orother websites, as well as banner ads, both static and animated. Abanner advertisement is created by embedding specific HTML code for thatbanner within the HTML coding for a given web page in which the banneris to appear. A website user's browser, as it interprets andsequentially executes the HTML code for a selected page, will compileand execute the embedded code for the banner and display the banner aspart of a rendered page and at a specified location thereon.

In implementing a banner, whether static or animated, the HTML coding isdownloaded to a the website user's browser. The file may be stored onthe same server that stores the HTML file for the web page, or accessedfrom a remote server. The file may contain a graphic itself, such as ina graphic interchange format or “GIF” file, or a Java applet which, onceinterpreted and executed by the browser, generates and renders thedesired graphic. Such files require time to download and must bedownloaded and assembled by the browser on the page prior to that pagebeing fully rendered. Download times for large files, especially whenthe website user's system has relatively low communications bandwidth,can be long enough to lose the website user's interest. Users have towait a considerable amount of time before all the page components formultimedia content are fully downloaded to permit that page to berendered. Such delay during a page transition often results in the userprematurely terminating the download and transitioning to another webpage. Advertisers therefore often limit the file size of their bannerads in order to minimize page download and hence latency times. Bannersare for this reason often less effective than desired, as evidenced byrelatively low user click-through counts generally observed for bannerads.

In an effort to overcome the limitations associated with banners,Internet advertisers have also used interstitial advertisements, whichare pre-programmed advertisements that are displayed on websites duringthe interstitial period between when a website user clicks to access anew web page and when the selected web page is displayed to the user.Such advertisements often include a hotlink to enable the user to“click-through” the advertisement to access the website designated bythe website advertiser. The length of an interstitial interval, which isvariable, is governed by a variety of factors, including, but notlimited to, the number of files required to fully render the new pageand the size of each such file, network and server congestion andattendant delays occurring when users activate hotlinks. Prior patentsin this field disclose the concept of embedding an advertisement as aninformation object in a web page file in such a manner that the objectwill remain hidden and will not be displayed when the file is executedto render the page. Rather than being displayed, the information objectis locally cached by the website user's browser during execution of thecode for that page. Then, during a transition initiated by website useractivation of a hotlink to move from one web page to a next successiveweb page, referred to as an “interstitial period,” the website user'sbrowser accesses the advertisement from its local cache and displays ituntil such time as that next successive page is downloaded and rendered.

Other efforts have included “polite” downloading, which involves abrowser on the website user's computer downloading from a remoteadvertising system server and ostensibly as a background process,file(s) for a web advertisement only during those intervals whenbandwidth utilization of a communication channel connected to thebrowser is less than a pre-established threshold. Such “polite”downloading is intended to minimally interfere with other communicationapplications then executing on the website user's computer. The websiteuser's browser displays the downloaded ad(s) to the user only after theuser has not interacted with the website for a predefined period oftime, such as by neither moving a mouse nor depressing a key on akeyboard during that period. The advertisement server selects thoseadvertisements for downloading to the website user's computer based on auser-ID and preference information of the user and configurationinformation of the user's computer, which is uploaded from the websiteuser's computer to the advertisement server when a connection isestablished between the website user's computer and the advertisementserver. Though the files associated with an interstitial advertisementcan be large, these files are advantageously referenced by the websiteuser's browser during those intervals when the website user's browser isidle and bandwidth utilization of its network connection is relativelylow.

By reducing limitations inherent in banners and engendered by downloadlatency, prior forms of interstitial web advertisements, by employingidle time downloading and local caching, provide an improved capabilityto place advertisements comprising rich media content. However,interstitial advertisements as conventionally implemented continue tohave practical deficiencies which limit their use.

Unlike banners, interstitial advertisements involve embedding HTML adcode, as a separate non-displayable object, within HTML coding for a webpage. Unfortunately, this technique is inflexible and expensive for anadvertiser to implement, especially when the advertiser, for whateverreason, seeks to modify ad content. Ad coding is manually inserted intoeach and every content web page that is to carry advertising.Consequently, insertion of increasingly sophisticated embeddedadvertising, such as rich media, in existing website content requires alarge investment in terms of human resources, time and cost as websites,particularly large sites, increase a number of content pages availablefor advertising.

“Push” technology has also been used to attempt to improve on methods ofplacing and processing interstitial advertisements. A “push” applicationprogram on the website user's computer establishes a network connectionwith a “push” web server, typically during off-hours, such as in thelate evening or early morning, or at a predefined interval. The “push”web server then downloads, or “pushes” to the push applicationadvertisements and/or other predefined information that are to be playedto the user sometime later. The “push” application stores all the“pushed” content files into a local database on a hard disk at thewebsite user's computer and, in response to instructions received fromthe “push” web server, deletes those previously “pushed” content fileswhich have already been displayed. The “push” application also maintainsa user profile which specifies user preferences as to the specificadvertising and/or other information the user wants to receive. As such,through each connection, the “push” web server, by selecting contentfrom its database relative to preferences specified in the user profile,attempts to “push” fresh content to the user's computer withoutduplicating that which was already displayed. Stored “pushed” content islater displayed either on user demand or during those times when theuser is not interacting with the system.

While “push” technology reduces download latency by shifting downloadsto occur at off-hours this technology also has drawbacks which limit itspractical acceptance. In particular, to access “pushed” content, awebsite user must initially download and install to the website user'scomputer a separate, platform-specific, software application program, aswell as subsequent updates to that program as new push capabilities arereleased. These application programs can often require significantamounts of computer memory capacity. Since typical Internet usersestablish relatively slow modem connections to their Internet serviceproviders, these users will find that downloading such relatively largeprogram files, even in compressed form, will consume an inordinateamount of time and is generally impractical while the website user isactively using the user's computer. Downloading and then regularlyupdating a “push” application will reduce, sometimes considerably, theamount of disk space available to the website user on the user'scomputer. Furthermore, relatively few website users will undertake theeffort of downloading and installing an application program to receiveadvertisements and other such information.

Other efforts to reduce the latency problems inherent in such interneadvertisements have included development of various proprietary mediaformats. These formats employ increasingly sophisticated datacompression, sometimes in conjunction with video and/or audio streaming.Rather than waiting for a media file to fully download prior to itsbeing rendered, streaming permits content in a “streamed” media file tobe presented in real-time to the website user as that content arrives atthe website user's browser. While this approach clearly providesenhanced richness in content over that obtainable through a conventionalbanner, it requires a continuous real-time network connection existingto a remote web server. Any network or server congestion which stops thedownload, even if temporary, can suspend or halt the “streamed” mediapresentation to the website user prior to its completion. Thisinterruption, if noticeable and sufficiently long, will likely frustratethe website user.

Still other efforts to address the shortcomings of interstitialadvertisements in current forms have involved decoupling advertisingcontent from a web content page, downloading advertising files through abrowser executing at a website user's computer into browser caches atthat computer and in a manner that is transparent to a user situated atthe browser and interstitially displaying advertisements through thebrowser in response to a user click-stream associated with normal usernavigation across different web pages. This technique relies onembedding an HTML tag into a referring page. The embedded tag containstwo components. One component downloads from a server and then executesan agent implemented as a Java applet at the website user's browser.This agent then downloads advertising files, originating from anadvertisement management system residing on a third-party advertisementserver, for a given advertisement into the website user's browser diskor RAM cache and subsequently plays those media files through thebrowser on an interstitial basis and in response to a user click-stream.The other component is a reference, in terms of a web address, of theadvertising management system from which the advertising files are to bedownloaded. The ad management system selects the given advertisementthat is to be downloaded, rather than having that selection or itscontent being embedded in the web content page. The agent operatesindependently of the content in any referring web page. Once loaded andstarted, the agent executes in parallel, with standard browserfunctionality, continually and transparently requesting and downloadingadvertisements to the website user's browser cache residing in a user'scomputer and interstitially playing those advertisements. In response toa user-initiated action which instructs the user's browser to transitionto a next successive content web page and which signifies a start of aninterstitial interval, the agent, if all the media and player files arethen resident on the user's computer hard disk, plays the media files,through the browser and during that interstitial interval, directly fromthe browser cache. Advertisements are interstitially played typically inthe order in which they were downloaded to the website user's browser.Interstitial play from the website user's browser cache advantageouslypermits previously cached rich advertisement content to be playedthrough the website user's browser without adversely affectingcommunication link bandwidth then available to the user's browser. Thus,the full available link bandwidth can be used, while an advertisement isbeing played, to download a next successive content web page.

While this technique provides better capability to place and providequick display of rich media advertisements, it still has the drawback ofrequiring storage of advertising files or agents on website user browserdisk or RAM cache space. It also delivers ad files only in the orderreceived. In view of the drawbacks associated with various web basedadvertising techniques known in the art, interstitial web advertisingappears to hold the most promise of all these techniques. Yet, thelimitations inherent in conventional implementations of interstitialadvertising have effectively prevented this form of web advertising fromeffectively fulfilling its promise.

The present invention improves over prior interstitial advertisingsystems and methods. The present invention does not embed advertisingHTML files within a web page, providing considerable economies toadvertisers in saved labor, time and cost in terms of both insertingadvertisements into web page files, and later changing any of thoseadvertisements. The present invention functions totally transparently toa website user and which neither inconveniences nor burdens the user.The present invention does not require a website user to download orinstall on the website user's computer a separate application programspecifically to receive web advertising or perform any affirmative actother than normal web browsing to receive such advertising. The presentinvention does not consume any browser hard disk or RAM space on theuser's computer. The present invention also provides proper accountingto an advertiser by accurately and validly ascertaining user impressionsof fully rendered advertisements. It also provides the capability toimplement a multi-level advertising business method in which accuratetracking of sales attributable to advertisements placed on websites isassured.

The present invention accomplishes this by use of a dispatcher serverthat allows the system to isolate and manage a database of links todifferent pages on a website to a separate server (dispatcher server)database. That server basically allows the system users to link orconnect pages in whatever order is desired and insert ad pages(interstitials) in between existing pages on a website. To envision thisprocess, imagine pages on a website, but no links in between them—alllinks going to the dispatcher server that contains a database of pagelinks for the website and knows how to find such pages (links) on thewebsite. Because the website knows where all pages are it can show an ad(which is another page that may be stored somewhere else) and then jumpto the next requested page on the website. In order to jump from theinterstitial ad page to a specific page on the website, the dispatcherserver, using a query string, passes variables (information) on thispage location (and other parameters such as tracking parameters) to thead file. The ad file can be rich media .swf file, but not necessarily—itcan also be a regular HTML or ASP file that contains a timeout forviewing the ad content and a tag or the ability to jump to a destinationpage. Sample code based on a meta tag is as follows: <METAhttp-equiv=“refresh” content=“<%=TimeOut %>: url=<%=DestinationPageURL%>”>).

The present invention, in a preferred embodiment, uses file serverdirect connection technology to process ad viewer activity trackingdata. This allows the system to send a tracking string with information(variables) received from the dispatcher server by the ad file directlyto a tracking server. File Server Direct Connection, or “FSDC,” is amethod to establish a direct connection via the Internet between aself-contained file and a custom server-based application for onlinesecured transactions, statistic tracking and server-based data sharing.FSDC uses a .swf file or alternately an HTML file, which can send aquery string directly to the specific URL for a desired server withoutloading variables from the file (or html code) or requests to thehistory object of the user's Internet browser. The use of the MacromediaFlash file is preferred because of the ability to provide instructionalcode within the .swf, and because nearly all client computer systemshave been enabled with the Flash player as a result of normal Internetbrowser configuration. It is to be understood that any type of file thatis capable of operation without the initiation of an additionalapplication could be used in place of Flash and the .swf file; however,presently, such is the preferred method of operation. As directed by itsinternal coding, the .swf ad file establishes a connection, via TCP/IP,with the specified server which is the tracking server, as discussedlater. FSDC is described and claimed in the applicant's pending U.S.non-provisional patent application entitled “Method and System For FileServer Direct Connection,” application Ser. No. 10/316,431 filed on Dec.11, 2002 and published on Jun. 26, 2003 (Publication No. 20030120727),the specification and figures of which are incorporated herein byreference. The coding of the .swf file establishes a connection to thetracking server so that a tabulation may be made, appropriately notingthe response to the ad. As the communication to the tracking server isonly made once the ad file has been opened, this is preferred over theprior art methodologies, which initiate the communication for tabulationprior to completing the link to the desired ad or site. In many cases,such tabulation is premature, as the user may close the window beforethe earlier desired material is delivered.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a system and method for the placement ofinterstitial advertisements in Internet websites. The system of thepresent invention includes software applications designed to givewebsite publishers the ability to easily place interstitialadvertisements online for easy placement on any website without outsideassistance. The system of the present invention includes a relationaldatabase containing parameters and command files with a uniqueidentifier for each interstitial ad that is available for placement in awebsite, including all necessary information to retrieve and run theinterstitial ad from a remote server where the ad file is stored inelectronic format, as well as to direct the viewer of the ad to thedesired destination website page relating to said advertisement if theviewer desires to obtain more information regarding the advertisement,or to the next or previous designated web page. The relational databasecontaining the ad placement parameters is stored in an ad dispatcherserver which can be separate from the database and server providing theactual ad files.

The ad files themselves are preferably rich media files, preferably.swf, which is a Macromedia Flash format, that can be embedded todynamic (such as ASP, PHP, .NET) or static HTML document. This is asmart rich media file that contains all necessary actions to play or tobe skipped, to track all custom parameters and to load a go-to page whenit is a appropriate (for instance at the and of the ad or when it isskipped by user). The ad can be stored on any server connected toInternet. As long as the particular website knows the URL to the ad filein such ad server it can be placed in between any two pages on thatwebsite or another website. The ad files are preferably previouslycreated and stored at an ad server ad database. The ad file can also bea regular HTML or .asp file that contains a timeout for viewing the adcontent and tag or the ability to jump to a destination page, or anyother type of file that is capable of operation without initiation of anadditional application. The graphical user interface is storedpreferably on the dispatcher server, and includes “thumbnails” orpreview displays of the available ads and information regarding thelocation of the ad in order to easily identify and manage ads, but notnecessarily the full ad file. It should be understood that the ad filecan be stored and accessed from any server and that whichever serverthat may be is generally referred to as the “ad server.”

The system is intended to be used by website operators and advertisersto place their own or third party advertisements on their own websites(and could also be used by website operators to post their own or thirdparty advertisements on websites operated by others as well). Thesystem's existence and operation is not apparent to the website user whois the intended viewer of the advertisements. The system serves theadvertisement file in addition to tracking impressions and click throughrates in real time while the advertisement runs.

The system is preferably made available to website operators andadvertisers via a website for use by them after registering as a websiteadvertisement administrator. Referring to FIG. 6, which shows theprocess flow of the advertising method implemented with the system ofthe present invention, a website operator/advertiser places aninterstitial ad by executing the following steps: Registering with thesystem as a website advertisement administrator 300, logging into thesystem 310 and providing the uniform resource locator address for thewebsite where the ads will be placed, selecting the ad by clicking onthe “thumbnail” of the desired previously-created and stored electronicinterstitial ad file via the system's ad menu screen provided in thesystem's graphical user interface, entering the uniform resource locatorinformation for the desired “go to page” for the website advertisementviewer to access after the interstitial advertisement has played 320,which can be back to the website where the website user viewed the aditself or any other designated website 330. These items of informationare then stored as the unique record in the database that can beretrieved and used by the dispatcher file (.asp, .php, .net or otherfile format) parameter command file for that particular ad placement340.

After clicking “Save” in the system user screen when theabove-referenced data is entered, a unique URL is generated that willdemand the specific database record containing the specified customparameters from the system's dispatcher server. This URL is then placedby the website operator in the website where the operator would like theinterstitial advertisement to appear. This relational database entryalso may contain custom parameters which, with the help of the FSDCtracking system, will pass tracking data relating to impressions and anyactions (clicks on multiple parameters) taken on that particularadvertisement for tracking and compilation for the websiteoperator/advertiser's future reference. The present invention makesserving interstitial ads possible without any pre-loading technologyrequired.

The present invention can be used to generate revenues throughmulti-level marketing approaches. Multi-level marketing distributors arenot only motivated to sell retail from their personal online stores, butalso to recruit distributors to join their down-line and sell from theirpersonal online stores. In multi-level marketing, any product sales froma website in a website operator's down-line will result in a businessvolume commission paid to them. In turn the website that sells theproduct directly makes its own personal business volume commission. FIG.20 depicts the sales revenue flow in such a multi-level advertisingbusiness method.

In a preferred embodiment, the tracking functions of the presentinvention are performed in a more efficient manner than prior artsystems. Instead of redirecting a website user's request as discussedabove, when a website user receives the interstitial advertisement usingthe present invention and in response clicks or requests a URL from theinformation provided, the website user is taken directly to the URL ofinterest, while a query string is independently sent to the system'stracking server from the ad file. The performance of the tracking serveris not apparent to the website user and cannot affect the website user.The tracking data is more accurate and can represent several differentcustomizable parameters sent from the destination file viewed ratherthan merely counting the number of requests. Furthermore, the use ofindependent connection processes insures that the website user's systemand privacy is not further exposed to the tracking system. Within thecontext of server side data sharing, the present invention provides fastand efficient, predominantly one-way communication, without requiringstorage of any files on a website user's computer system. The system, byutilizing FSDC for tracking directly establishes network connectionsbetween the ad file and the dispatcher server system where the trackingparameters and click-through destinations for interstitialadvertisements are stored in the dispatcher server database by means ofa single compiled file that does not require an additional networkcommunications system such as a web browser or other supportingapplication. Specifically, a network connection is established to anencoded URL, and information is delivered to the tracking server in theform of a query string. Differing from a typical browser, or othertypical network enabling software systems, the communication linkestablished by the compiled file is predominantly one way andnon-conversational. Impact on system resources is reduced as overheadsupport software is not required. Likewise bandwidth is conserved andissues of privacy are maintained as minimal information is exchangedwithout website user interaction or storage of files on the websiteuser's computer memory.

By providing for TCP/IP communication over a network by means of aself-contained file that generates a non-conversational message directedto a server for storage and/or processing, the amount of unintendedinformation transferred from the website user's system to the serversystem, and access to the website user's system from the server system(which may be unknowingly provided) is minimized or eliminated. It alsoprovides the means and capability to rapidly provide interaction betweenthe website user and the website by reducing the exchange of informationto be as nearly one-way as possible, thus, conserving bandwidthresources and permitting greater speed in transfer and perceivedinteraction. The system and method of the present invention arepartially based on the idea that some specific objectives on theInternet do not require a conversation between a user's computer and aserver but can be achieved and even work better if the communication isone way from the user's computer to the server.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is diagrammatical overview of the Internet communication flow ofthe present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagrammatical representation of system components and theirinterrelationship.

FIG. 3 is a diagrammatical overview of the relationship among systemservers and website users utilizing the system of the present invention.

FIG. 4 depicts a sample system dispatcher server database parameterfile.

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram depicting website user interstitialclick-through flow.

FIG. 6 depicts the steps taken by a website operator or advertiser toplace an interstitial advertisement on a website using the presentinvention.

FIG. 7 depicts a sample system user registration screen.

FIG. 8 depicts a sample system user log-in screen.

FIG. 9 depicts a sample interstitial advertisement menu selectionscreen.

FIG. 10 depicts a sample interstitial advertisement menu selectionscreen including the “go-to” page URL entry section and “save” button.

FIG. 11 depicts a sample system interstitial advertisement link text anddestination URL entry screen.

FIG. 12 depicts a sample system user interstitial advertisementclick-through activity tracking screen.

FIG. 13 depicts a sample website screen including a link to aninterstitial advertisement provided through the system of the presentinvention.

FIG. 14 depicts a sample interstitial advertisement as provided by thead server of the system of the present invention.

FIG. 15 depicts a sample advertiser's website screen accessed byclicking on a link provided in the interstitial advertisement.

FIG. 16 depicts a sample website screen accessed through the system ifthe viewer of the interstitial advertisement skips the ad links anddesires to return to the website in which the advertisement was placed.

FIG. 17 depicts a sample system user interstitial advertisementclick-through activity tracking screen updated to reflect userclick-through data based on action by user as depicted in FIG. 16.

FIG. 18 depicts the website user's click-through flow in a multi-levelmarketing implementation of the present invention.

FIG. 19 depicts the website user's click-through flow in a multi-levelmarketing implementation of the present invention also incorporatingdelivery of post-advertisement sales and marketing materials.

FIG. 20 depicts the revenue stream flow of a multi-level marketingimplementation of the present invention.

FIG. 21 depicts the process flow of a multi-level marketingimplementation of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION

According to a preferred embodiment hereof, the present invention is asystem and method for placement of interstitial advertisements onInternet websites.

The system of the present invention in a preferred embodiment comprises:a system-end computer equipped and configured for Internetcommunications, including computer processing means and one or moreInternet communications interface software applications for interfacingwith system users, also providing a menu screen for selection ofinterstitial ads and creating a record in a dispatcher server databasethat contains parameters and commands to be used by the dispatcher fileto provide access to said interstitial advertisement files including theuniform resource locator address for the go-to web page(s) to which awebsite user is directed after said website user either clicks throughor skips said advertisement, one or more advertisement serversconfigured and equipped for Internet communications communicating withsaid system-end dispatcher server and website user-end computer systemsand having one or more advertisement files stored thereon, a websiteoperator-end computer configured and equipped for Internetcommunications and communicating with said system dispatcher server andwebsite user-end computer systems, a website user-end computerconfigured and equipped for Internet communications and communicatingwith said website and said advertisement server, and computer Internetcommunication means for displaying said interstitial advertisement tosaid website user directly from said advertisement server and thendirecting said website user to said specified go-to web pages dependingon said website user's activity with respect to said advertisement.

The interface means, processor means and computer communications meanscan have various embodiments, including, without limitation, use oftraditional Internet browser applications, whether customized for use inthe present system or existing third party software applications toprovide the interstitial advertisements to the user. In a preferredembodiment, the website page where the ad is desired contains a uniformresource locator indicator with a unique identifier attached to it ofthe record stored in the dispatcher server database to be retrieved andused by a dispatcher server-based application to provide access to saidinterstitial advertisement at the ad server. When website users click onthis link, it transmits this identifier to the dispatcher server-basedapplication and the dispatcher server-based application retrieves therequested record from the database and based on the retrieved data,loads the proper interstitial ad and passes all necessary informationfrom the database into it. The record retrieved from the dispatcherserver contains information for the purpose of tracking. Thatinformation can be passed to the interstitial ad via a data string thatloads the ad and then can be used as part of the tracking string sentfrom the ad file.

The method of the present invention in a preferred embodiment comprisesthe steps of: selecting a record of data pertaining to one or moreinterstitial advertisement files previously stored in electronic fileformat in a mass storage device of a computer system having anadvertisement server configured for Internet communications forplacement on a website; storing the uniform resource locator address forthe website location where said one or more selected advertisement fileswill be displayed as well as the uniform resource locator address forthe go-to page(s) to which the website user will be directed afterdisplay of the selected advertisement depending on said advertisementviewer's activity with respect to said advertisement, and the uniformresource locator address for the advertisement file wherever it isstored, as well as tracking parameters in a dispatcher server-baseddatabase for use upon execution of the interstitial ad, assigning tosaid stored database record an identifier that is attached to a datastring and placing that string on the website where the interstitialadvertisement is desired, which, when clicked on by the website user,causes the website to communicate with the dispatcher server to retrievethe stored database record and use retrieved values in said data stringand commands for said ad placement, which in turn communicates with thead server to run the ad for the website user. The advertisement vieweris then directed to said go-to web page(s) depending on saidadvertisement viewer's activity with respect to said advertisement.

In a preferred embodiment, the interstitial advertisement is placed onthe desired website as a URL with attached identifier of the specificrecord in the dispatcher server database. In this preferred embodiment,the website user, when an interstitial period occurs, can access andview the interstitial advertisements without having to download or cacheany files on the website user's system. The transition to aninterstitial period itself results in the dispatcher server-basedapplication executing and providing access to the desired ad files fromthe ad server and passing values for tracking parameters retrieved fromthe record. Utilizing FSDC technology, the ad's custom trackingparameters as well as the website user's actions in clicking on the adlinks provided is itself used as a tracking signal by the system and issaved in the related tracking database.

Referring now to FIG. 5, when a website user clicks on a web page linkto retrieve the next desired web page, the link executes a request tothe system's dispatcher server to retrieve a specific ad placementparameter file 200. The dispatcher server contains unique identifiersfor that particular ad placement transaction stored in the database. Thedatabase can be in SQL Server format, or, alternatively, it can be inOracle, Microsoft Access or any other server-based database format. Thedatabase stores the unique parameters for the particular interstitial adplacement. The stored information contains three components:

-   -   1. URL link to the interstitial ad to be shown before the go-to        page (the ad file can be located on any server, but is        preferably stored in a database in a separate ad server so that        updating of ad files can be done separately from use of the        system at one web location rather than on every website where        the ad is placed).    -   2. URL link to go-to page which will be loaded right after the        ad, or at the time user decide to ignore the ad and click a        “skip” button.    -   3. Variables that hold custom parameters for tracking (as many        as needed), including link(s) to click action target page or        pages.

The dispatcher server, in response to the request, initiates the link tothe ad file at the ad server and passes into it the followinginformation: Link to go-to page and variables that contain customtracking parameters 210. The ad then grabs this information from thequery string and acts accordingly (displaying ad file 220 and sendingtracking parameters to a tracking server using FSDC in a preferredembodiment). Below is a sample of software code for an .asp file thatpasses variables from the query string received from the dispatcherserver to an embedded ad.swf file:

<%@LANGUAGE=“VBSCRIPT”%> <% Ad_url = “ad.swf?linkToDestinationPage=” &Request.QueryString(“linkToDestinationPage”)&“&linkToAdvertiserWebsite=” &Request.QueryString(“linkToAdvertiserWebsite”) &“&trackingParam1=” &Request.QueryString(“trackingParam1”) & “&trackingParam2=” &Request.QueryString(“trackingParam2”) %> <HTML> <HEAD> <metahttp-equiv=Content-Type content=“text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1”><TITLE>Interstitial Ad</TITLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgcolor=“#FFFFFF”> <!--URL's used in the movie--> <!-- text used in the movie--> <OBJECTclassid=“clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000”codebase=“http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6, 0,0,0” WIDTH=“800” HEIGHT=“480” id=“Ad” ALIGN=“”><PARAM NAME=movie VALUE=“<%= Ad_url %>”> <PARAM NAME=quality VALUE=high><PARAM NAME=bgcolor VALUE=#FFFFFF> <EMBED src=“<%= Ad_url %>”quality=high bgcolor=#FFFFFF WIDTH=“800” HEIGHT=“480” NAME=“Ad” ALIGN=“”TYPE=“application/x-shockwave-flash”PLUGINSPAGE=“http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer”> </EMBED></OBJECT> </BODY> </HTML>

Below are three sample commands for an ad .swf file that grabs variablesfrom a query string (as above) and uses them to:

a) jump to go-to page (key frame at the end of the ad movie or on skipbutton action): getURL(linkToDestinationPage, “_top”);

b) open advertiser's website in a separate window on click (button):getURL(linkToAdvertiserWebsite; “_blank”);

c) send sample tracking string to tracking server (from any key framewhile playing):loadVariablesNum(“http://trackingServer.com/?trackingParam1=”+trackingParam1,0).

For regular HTML or ASP, the following sample command contains timeoutfor viewing the add content and tag or method to jump to destinationpage (sample code based on meta tag: <META http-equiv=“refresh”content=“<%=TimeOut %>; url=<%=DestinationPageURL %>”>), and is utilizedfor tracking an image tag: <imgsrc=“http://trackingServer.com/?trackingParam1=<%=trackingParam1%>”width=“100%” height=“2”>.

The computer system used in the present invention is configured andequipped for Internet communications and, in addition to usual computerprocessing hardware comprises the following main components:

-   -   1. Dispatcher Server—having .asp. php or other files that        execute the retrieval of requested records from the dispatcher        server-based database, loads the ad for the website user and        passes variables to the ad file.    -   2. Dispatcher server-based relational database containing the        unique parameter record for each interstitial ad placement, and        that may include a template action script for a flash file that        can be used in any of the rich media ads stored in the ad        server, and allows storing transactions for interstitials        (combination of links to ad, destination page and custom        parameters) and monitors in real-time ad viewer activity        tracking information.    -   3. Password protected online user interface software that allows        system users to create database records as above and monitor ad        viewer activity with respect to ads.    -   4. Ad server and/or ad server-based interstitial advertisement        files. This can be any server that holds the ad file.    -   5. FSDC tracking server—receives tracking data strings from the        ad when ad is displayed to a website user.

Use of the System

The users preferably contract with an Internet service provider forgeneral Internet access and have a suitable Internet browser program ontheir computer system. Referring now to FIG. 8, users of the system,such as, for example, website advertisers and operators, can log on tothe system site by entering a password. Once the user's password isvalidated, access is granted to the system and its dispatcher server anddatabases via a graphical user interface. The dispatcher server stores amenu of “thumbnails” of various rich streaming media interstitialadvertisement files (which are saved preferably on one or more separatead servers) that website operators can select to place on their ownand/or other websites for delivery to website users, as well as arelational database storing advertisement placement transactionparameter/command data files. The system screens preferably provide asystem user template for creating parameter/command file uniformresource locator address data strings for placement as a link on thewebsite where the advertisement files are to be displayed to websiteusers.

The system website operator/advertiser interface, in a preferredembodiment is based on (a) SQL server (which, alternately can be Oracleor Microsoft Access) database; (b) web-based interface generated byactive server pages (written, for example, in Visual Basic) and (c)active server pages, Flash and ASP and XML-based applications todynamically create a unique record in the database that contains datarequired to load the selected interstitial ad and to assign uniquetracking parameters to it.

Referring now to FIGS. 2 and 3, an overview of a preferred embodiment ofthe present invention is shown. The present invention includes a systemwebsite operator/advertiser computer system 108. The computer system 108comprises input and output devices, as is well-known in the art. Forexample, the computer system 108 preferably comprises a display screenor monitor 104, a keyboard 116, a printer 114, a mouse 106, etc. Thecomputer system 108 is preferably connected to the Internet 112 thatserves as the presently preferred communications medium. The Internet112, as previously discussed, comprises a global network of networks andcomputers, public and private. The Internet 112 is the preferableconnection method by system users 118, 120, 122 and nnn in preferredembodiments of the present invention. The website user/advertisementviewer's computer is preferably similar in its features.

Referring now to FIG. 3, the system-end computer 108 is shown. Thecomputer system 108, in a preferred embodiment, comprises a dispatcherserver 126, an ad server 125, and a tracking server (which can be thesame as the dispatcher server) 124. The dispatcher server 126, ad server125 and tracking server 124 preferably run in a variety of operatingsystem environments, including MS Windows NT, MS Windows 2000, Linux andothers, and preferably utilize a variety of database management systems,including MS SQL Server, Oracle and others.

Connectivity between the system user-end portion and the system-end andwebsite user-end may be effected in various forms without violating thescope and spirit of the present invention. In particular, networkconnectivity may be made by a telephone line/modem combination as iswell known in the art, a dedicated ISDN line or a cable modem-typeset-top-box which provides for Internet connectivity through certainforms of cable television services. In each of the aforementioned cases,the computer of the website user-end portion will need to be providedwith a suitable I/O card, such as a modem, ISDN card, and the like, inorder to effect an appropriate interface with the network connection.

In application, the system provides for placement and delivery ofinterstitial advertisements as a compiled file. Preferably, thiscompiled file is a flash file identified by the .SWF suffix other htmlor other files can be used. The use of the Macromedia Flash file ispreferred because of the ability to provide instructional code withinthe .swf file, and because nearly all customer computer systems havebeen enabled with the Flash player as a result of normal Internetbrowser configuration. It is to be understood that under the teachingsof the present invention, any type of file that is capable of operationwithout the initiation of an additional application could be used inplace of Flash and the .swf file and use of a .swf file is not alimitation of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1, under the present invention, the occurrence of theinterstitial period activates the command file at the dispatcher server.As directed by its .asp file, the dispatcher server establishes aconnection, via TCP/IP, with the specified ad server, and pulls Flashimages (.swf file or HTML file in which .swf file is embedded) as forthe desired advertisement file for presentation to the website user andpasses into it parameters retrieved from the dispatcher server database.

Using data received from the dispatcher server, the coding of the .swffile establishes a connection to a tracking server which is preferablyused to store and provide to system users website advertisement vieweractivity tracking data. At the end of the ad, the coding of the .swffile loads the website go-to page address (URL) it received from thedispatcher server. On viewer interaction, such as via clicks, the codingof the .swf file establishes two substantially simultaneous connections,with one to the indicated tracking server for tracking purposes and thesecond is the actual link from the ad to the advertised content(click-through scenario).

The compiled program attaches a specific code element (which may bepreviously defined, or compiled with user supplied information) to a URLinternally known to the system. This information is received from theuser website by the dispatcher server, and parsed from the end of theURL by means commonly known and understood by those skilled in the artof network and database interaction. Based upon the returned informationas parsed, the dispatcher server delivers the ad from the server itresides on directly to the website user.

A sample of the software application code for a command file stored onthe dispatcher server, written with VB script is provided below:

<%@LANGUAGE=“VBSCRIPT”%> <% Dim adRs_MMColParam adRs_MMColParam = “1” if(Request.QueryString(“recordID”) <> “”) then adRs_MMColParam =Request.QueryString(“recordID”) %> <% set adRs =Server.CreateObject(“ADODB.Recordset”) adRs.ActiveConnection =“dsn=LocalServer;uid=;pwd=;” adRs.Source = “SELECT * FROMadServer.dbo.ads WHERE ID = ” + Replace(adRs_MMColParam, “‘”, “‘’”) + “”adRs.CursorType = 0 adRs.CursorLocation = 2 adRs.LockType = 3 adRs.Open() adRs_numRows = 0 %> <% Dim impCommand_MM_imp impCommand_MM_imp =Int(adRs.Fields.Item(“clicked”).Value) + 1 Dim impCommand_MM_thrueimpCommand_MM_thrue = (Int(adRs.Fields.Item(“clicked”).Value) + 1)/Int(adRs.Fields.Item(“imp”).Value) * 100 Dim impCommand_MM_moneyimpCommand_MM_money = Int(adRs.Fields.Item(“moneyMade”).Value) + 0.01 %><% set impCommand = Server.CreateObject(“ADODB.Command”)impCommand.ActiveConnection = “dsn=LocalServer;uid=;pwd=;”impCommand.CommandText = “UPDATE adServer.dbo.ads SET clicked = ” +Replace(impCommand_MM_imp, “‘”, “‘’”) + “, clickThrue = ” +Replace(impCommand_MM_thrue, “‘”, “‘’”) + “, moneyMade = ” +Replace(impCommand_MM_money, “‘”, “‘’”) + “ WHERE ID = ” +Replace(adRs_MMColParam, “‘”, “‘’”) + “” impCommand.CommandType = 1impCommand.CommandTimeout = 0 impCommand.Prepared = trueimpCommand.Execute( ) impCommand.ActiveConnection.Close( ) %> <% DimDefaultURL DefaultURL = “” if (Request.QueryString(“defaultURL”) <> “”)then DefaultURL = Request.QueryString(“defaultURL”) %> <% DimMM_redirectUrl MM_redirectUrl = DefaultURL If(adRs.Fields.Item(“DestinationPageURL”).Value <> “”) then MM_redirectUrl= “http://” & adRs.Fields.Item(“DestinationPageURL”).Value &“&trackingParameter1=” & adRs.Fields.Item(“trackingParameter1”).Value &“&trackingParameter2=” & adRs.Fields.Item(“trackingParameter2”).Value %><% ‘OR pass record ID to Rich Media Ad and get record from there ‘If(adRs.Fields.Item(“ID”).Value <> “”) then MM_redirectUrl = “http://” &adRs.Fields.Item(“DestinationPageURL”).Value & “recordID=” &Request.QueryString(“recordID”) %> <html> <head> <metahttp-equiv=“Content-Type” content=“text/html; charset=iso-8859-1”> <METAhttp-equiv=“pragma” content=“nocache”> <META http-equiv=“expires”content=“−1000”> <META http-equiv=“refresh” content=“0; url=<%=MM_redirectUrl %>”> </head> <body> </body> </html> <% adRs. ActiveConnection = Nothing adRs.Close( ) Set adRs = Nothing %>

A sample depiction of a database file stored in the system dispatcherserver is provided in FIG. 4.

System Screens

FIGS. 7-17 depict representative samples of the system's graphical userinterface screens, which provide a system user template for creatingparameter/command file uniform resource locator address data strings forplacement as a link on the website where the advertisement files are tobe displayed to the website users.

FIG. 8 depicts a sample website operator/advertiser user login screen.Users who are registered with the system enter their user identificationand password to access the system as depicted in FIG. 8. New operatorusers must register with the system by completing an online form asdepicted in FIG. 7. Once logged in, website operator users are presentedwith a screen such as FIG. 9, which has various options, including edituser information, portfolio and tracking and add new advertisement.

Referring to FIG. 9, which depicts an interstitial advertisement fileselection screen, where registered system users select interstitialadvertisements for inclusion in desired websites. Categories of contentfiles that are available for selection are preferably provided throughthe menus. Website operator users can select files as needed to createcustomized interstitial advertisements. The screens preferably indicatethe owners of the advertisements, the products offered and thecompensation terms offered for placing the ad on a website.

Referring to FIG. 10, which depicts a sample interstitial advertisementselection screen where the system user is prompted to enter the uniformresource locator address for the “go-to” web page after the ad is viewedor skipped by the website user, the system user enters the informationfor the desired “go-to” page and then saves the parameters in thesystem's dispatcher server database by clicking on the save button.

Referring to FIG. 11, which depicts a sample ad link text anddestination URL entry screen, the system user enters the uniformresource locator address for the desired advertiser web page to bepresented to website users that click on the ad after it runs to obtainmore information, as well as text to accompany the URL link forinclusion on the web page where the ad is placed.

Referring to FIG. 12, the system provides a tracking screen for users totrack website user click-through activity with respect to the ad. Thescreen shows the specific URL/data string assigned to the particular adplacement transaction parameters file stored in the dispatcher serverfor that transaction. This URL/data string is what is placed on theactual website where the ad is going to be displayed. FIG. 13 depicts asample link on a website that represents such a URL/data string. FIG. 14depicts the ad displayed to a website user that clicks on a link such asthat represented in FIG. 13 during the interstitial period occurringafter such link is clicked on by the website user. FIG. 15 depicts asample of an advertiser page obtained when a website user clicks throughan interstitial advertisement after viewing it, to obtain additionalinformation. FIG. 16 depicts the “go-to” page displayed to the websiteuser if he/she skips or takes no action on the ad. FIG. 17 depicts asample tracking screen updated to reflect user click-through activityand ad impression counts after an ad is displayed to a website user whodecided not to click-through the ad to access the advertiser's web page.

Multi-Level Advertising Business Method Using Interstitial Ad ServerSystem

With the system of the present invention, an Internet merchant canbenefit from online interstitial advertising by finding advertisingdistributors to set themselves up as a product distributor in themerchant's down-line in a multi-level marketing business method. Thoseadvertising distributors preferably are provided with a personalizedonline store website URL courtesy of the merchant, and place theInternet merchant's interstitial ad on the advertising distributor'swebsite using the system of the present invention. This advertisementcan then be linked to the downline advertising distributor's personalonline store. Preferably, the website to which an advertisement vieweris directed for sales of the advertised product or service is adedicated website that is accessed only by website users that viewed thead at a point in time prior to making a purchase transaction via saidsite, even if the website user makes such purchase by accessing theonline store site directly after obtaining the address for said onlinestore from the advertisements. This permits accurate tracking of salesattributable to the ad placed on the downstream distributor's website.FIG. 18 depicts the website user click-through flow in a multi-leveladvertising business method implementation of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 21, which depicts the process flow in a multi-leveladvertising business method implementation of the present invention, anInternet merchant preferably will have already stored its interstitialadvertisement files in the system ad server for selection by downstreamdistributors 400. Downstream distributors register as distributors withthe Internet merchant and obtain the uniform resource locator addressfor the designated downstream distribution online store which can be amirror of the Internet merchant's site 410. The downstream distributorthen registers with the system and selects the Internet merchant's adfile(s), entering the downstream distributor's website uniform resourcelocator address as the address for the website where the Internetmerchant's interstitial ad will be placed 420. The downstreamdistributor enters the uniform resource locator address for the onlinestore website as the designated site to which viewers of the Internetmerchant's interstitial ad will be directed. If the ad is clicked on bythe viewer, the address for the desired go-to page to which viewers ofthe ad are directed if they don't click to access the online store site,and such parameters are stored as a parameter/command file in thedispatcher server and the uniform resource locator address for suchdispatcher server file is then stored as a link on the downstreamdistributor's website 430. When a website user clicks on said link theysee the selected ad. When a website user clicks on a link placed in thead, the website user accesses the online store. Sales attributable tothe ad occur only at the online store site at the URL provided by theInternet merchant 440. The system tracks user click-throughs and storesdata on the system's tracking server for tracking by the Internetmerchant and the downstream distributor 450. When the website usercompletes a purchase on the online store, the Internet merchant and thedownstream distributor can share revenues generated from the sale 460.

With this method trust is no longer an issue because the sales from thededicated online store website can be easily monitored by them withoutany outside assistance. The Internet merchant who placed theadvertiser/distributor below them in their down line can monitor thesales and commissions they are earning as a result of the interstitialadvertisement by visiting the online store website. In fact, themerchant online store owner and the advertiser can be one and the samesuch that the need to track revenue attributable to each ad is reduced,although such tracking is still possible.

The present invention can be combined with the system and method forcreating and sending customized rich media marketing and sales materialsas disclosed in commonly owned published U.S. non-provisional patentapplication Ser. No. 10/417,478 filed on Apr. 17, 2003, thespecification and figures of which are incorporated herein by reference,to market and pursue prospects that enter their email address intointerstitial advertising promotions. These leads can then be cultivatedby using the marketing and sales material helper tool. FIG. 19 depictsthe website user click-through flow in a multi-level advertisingbusiness method implementation of the present invention includingproviding such additional materials to the website user.

Internet merchants can provide their existing interstitial advertisementcontent as well as other television, print and streaming rich mediaelectronic presentations and materials, to the ad server system operatorfor conversion as necessary and storage for use later in placinginterstitial advertisements.

Additional Embodiments

Additional embodiments of the system of the present invention includeoffering a complete advertiser/distributor franchise turnkey solution tomerchants that would include the ad-dispatcher system and method of thepresent invention and an updateable and a scalable web-based e-commercesolution with a multi-level marketing or straight commission payoutsystem, enabling merchants to increase the scale of their sales andmarketing efforts by adding additional online store websites. With theoptional addition of rich media interstitial ads, presentations and themarketing and sales-helper system as described in U.S. non-provisionalpatent application Ser. No. 10/417,478, a merchant would have allelements necessary to sell merchandise on the Internet and findadvertisers to place adds to sell said merchandise. The presentinvention can be used with any scalable e-commerce solution, whetherpayouts are in a multi-level or straight payout commission structure,that includes a designated online store website with a unique referenceidentifier and/or URL to which ad viewers are directed. The multi-levelmarketing commission structure has added benefit in that in motivatescurrent advertiser distributors to find other advertiser distributors tobe in their downstream so as to increase revenues with minimal effort.However the system and method can be employed to create a multilevelonline store chain all controlled and operated by a single merchant.

Tracking

As noted previously, tracking functions can be performed using existingtracking methods, (by Double Click, for example) which are based on theidea of re-directing the user's request. With this method when the userclicks on an ad file with an imbedded URL the request first goes to aspecific URL which contains a special script or application whichcalculates these requests and then after executing this sends the userto the requested destination. This method slows down the user'sexperience and Internet performance because the user is connected to thetracking server first, then from the tracking server to the destinationserver, and the performance of the tracking server becomes an issue.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, these actions aresplit and independent from each other. When the website user clicks orrequests a page from a website, the user directly accesses thepreprogrammed interstitial ad while a query string is independently sentto the tracking server from the ad. The performance of the trackingserver cannot affect the website user's experience, and reliability isincreased because the execution of these two actions is not dependent oneach other. This query string, or its result, can contain or generateall the necessary information for statistical calculation, includingtime of action, IP address of all desired go-to pages and does notrequire any communication back from the user to the server, which cancompromise the user's privacy. A non-conversational message can be sentright from HTML part of the web page at the moment when the page isloaded in the web browser. A standard HTML tag is used, which holdsimages in the document body <img src=“ ”>. Instead of using the URL forthe image, the system uses the URL for the active server page, whichrecognizes URL parameters as a tracking string and executes storing andexecutes storing received data in database. A sample string is asfollows: <img src=‘http://trackingserver.com?messageID=“& messageID &”’width=‘1’ height=‘1’> (where ‘messageID’ is dynamically assignedtracking variable).

Below is an example of the type of code that preferably would exist onthe tracking server, and which would process the received string ofinformation attached to the URL. The sample code below grabs the querystring received and stores it in the database for tracking purposes:

<%@ LANGUAGE=“VBSCRIPT” %> <% ‘UID = Request.QueryString(“Id”) Set cn =Server.CreateObject(“ADODB.Connection”) cn.Open “FILEDSN=userData.dsn”Set rsCount = Server.CreateObject(“ADODB.Recordset”) Set rsVisitors =Server.CreateObject(“ADODB.Recordset”) rsVisitors.Open “SELECT * FROMvisitors WHERE UID=“‘ & UID & ”’”, cn if rsVisitors.EOF thencn.Execute(“INSERT INTO visitors (UID, LastDate, LastTime, VisitCount)VALUES (“‘ & UID & ’”, “‘ & date & ’”, “‘ & time & ’”, 1)”) elsersCount.Open “SELECT VisitCount FROM visitors WHERE UID=“‘ & UID & ”’”,cn cnt = rsCount.Fields.Item(“VisitCount”) cn.Execute(“UPDATE visitorsSET VisitCount = 1+“ & cnt & ”, LastDate =“‘ & date & ’”, LastTime = “‘& time & ’” WHERE UID = “‘ & UID & ”’”) end if %>

Multiple tracking data can be obtained as the website user continues toclick on additional ad files provided at a website.

Server Side Data Sharing

With conventional methods data sharing on the Internet involves atwo-way communication between one or multiple users and a server. Asdescribed earlier, this two-way communication opens the customer'scomputer to the public and slows down the performance of the datasharing. In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a systemuser sends his data one way to the dispatcher. The data is thengenerated to an .swf file which can be grabbed by another user from theInternet, adjusted, then sent back to the server to be generated andgabbed again. This method of data transfer is safer and faster, andworks well with any application where data sharing is necessary, such asdistance learning, games, banking, etc.

While the present invention has been shown and described herein in whatare considered to be the preferred embodiments thereof, illustrating theresults and advantages over the prior art obtained through the presentinvention, the invention is not limited to those specific embodiments.Thus, the forms of the invention shown and described herein are to betaken as illustrative and other embodiments may be selected withoutdeparting from the spirit and scope of the present invention.

1. A method for advertising on a computer network comprising thefollowing steps: receiving at a dispatcher server communicating via anelectronic communications network with a website user-end computer, awebsite operator-end computer and an electronic content server, arequest from a website user made by acting upon a URL data string placedon a said website, processing said request via a software applicationrun by said dispatcher server to cause a parameter/command record storedat a database of said dispatcher server to be accessed, saidparameter/command record storing an address wherein an electroniccontent file is stored in said electronic content server, an address fora go-to page to which a website user is to be directed after saidrequest is received and a tracking parameter/command, and causing saidparameters/commands stored in said parameter/command record to beexecuted which in turn causes an advertisement file to be presented tosaid website user with said electronic content file being loaded fromsaid electronic content server and for said go-to page and customtracking parameter being passed to said advertisement file to presentsaid electronic content to said website user as an advertisement withoutrequiring downloading of said electronic content file into cache memoryof said website user's computer in advance of receiving said request,and directing said website user to said go-to page after said request isreceived, and receiving in a tracking server tracking data pertaining topresentation of said advertisement and said website user's action withrespect to said advertisement, said tracking data being sent by saidadvertisement file to said tracking server based on said trackingparameter/command.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein said advertisementis delivered by said dispatcher server as a file including encodingnecessary to load said electronic content files for presentation as anadvertisement to said website user and pass to said file said parametersand commands stored in said advertisement parameter/command placementrecord to direct said website user to a subsequent page and sendtracking data to a tracking server.
 3. The method of claim 1, whereinsaid parameter/command record that is retrieved corresponds to said URLdata string placed on said website, and said website user action thatresults in a request being received at said dispatcher server is saidwebsite user's click action at said website.
 4. The method of claim 1,wherein said website user makes said request by clicking on a link onsaid website.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein said tracking datacomprises a tracking query string received by said tracking server as aone-way non-conversational communication that is sent from saidadvertisement.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein said uniform resourcelocator data string placed on said website page, when activated byaction on said website page by said website user, accesses a said storedadvertisement placement parameter/command record which causes a compiledfile to be delivered to said website user, said compiled file accessingsaid electronic content file designated in said advertisement placementparameter/command record from said content server and presenting saidelectronic content file as said advertisement to said website userwithout requiring downloading of said advertisement file into browsercache memory of said website user's computer for storage in advance of arequest for presentation of said advertisement.
 7. A method forelectronic advertisement presentation comprising the following steps:Receiving a selection of a record of data representing a content filepreviously stored in electronic format in a content file storagelocation at a content server communicating with an electroniccommunications network, for presentation of said content file as anadvertisement to a user of a website, said website communicating viasaid electronic communications network and located remotely from saiduser of said website and said content server, said website user having acomputer communicating with said website via said electroniccommunications network, storing as a record in a database of adispatcher server that does not reside at said website user's computeror on said website an address for said storage location where saidelectronic content file is stored as well as an address for a go-to webpage where said website user will be directed if said user skips or doesnot act on said advertisement to request additional information and anaddress for a go-to web page where said website user will be directed ifsaid website user acts on said advertisement to request additionalinformation, and parameters/commands to retrieve said selectedelectronic content files from said content server and present saidelectronic content files as an advertisement to said website userwithout requiring downloading of said electronic content files intobrowser cache memory of said website user's computer for storage inadvance of a request for presentation of an advertisement, andgenerating for placement on a page on said website a uniform resourcelocator data string that, when acted upon by said website user, launchesa said dispatcher server database-stored advertisement placementparameter/command record, which in turn executes to cause said selectedelectronic content file designated in said advertisement placementparameter/command record to be presented to said website user withoutrequiring downloading of said content files into browser cache memory ofsaid website user's computer for storage in advance of a request forpresentation of said content files or requiring initiation of anadditional application to present said advertisement and directs saidwebsite user to one of said go-to web pages depending on said websiteuser's activity with respect to said advertisement.
 8. The method ofclaim 7, further comprising the step of tracking said presentation ofsaid advertisement by receiving a tracking query string sent by saidadvertisement to a tracking server if said advertisement is presented tosaid website user, said tracking query string being sent by saidadvertisement as a one-way non-conversational communication from saidadvertisement.
 9. A system for placement of electronic advertisements,comprising: a dispatcher server communicating via an electroniccommunications network, said dispatcher server providing access to adatabase storing advertisement placement transaction parameter andcommand records, an advertisement server communicating with saiddispatcher server and having electronic content files stored thereon, asystem software application providing an advertiser user interface forreceiving system user selection of one or more of said electroniccontent files for use as an advertisement to be presented at a websiteon said electronic communications network, for receiving designation ofan address for a go-to web page where a user of said website will bedirected if said website user skips or does not act on saidadvertisement to request additional information and an address for ago-to web page where said website user will be directed if said websiteuser acts on said advertisement to request additional information, andfor storage as an advertisement placement parameter and command recordwithin said database of said dispatcher server said addresses for saidgo-to web pages, said location of said one or more selected electroniccontent files and the parameters and commands to retrieve said one ormore selected electronic content files from said advertisement serverand present said one or more selected electronic content files as anadvertisement to a said website user, said system software applicationfurther generating a link for placement on said website that whenactivated causes said stored parameter and command record to beactivated, causing said selected one or more electronic content filesdesignated in said advertisement placement parameter and command recordto be retrieved from said electronic content server and be presented tosaid website user as an advertisement without requiring downloading ofsaid content files into browser cache memory of said website user'scomputer for storage in advance of a request for presentation of saidadvertisement.
 10. The system of claim 9, wherein tracking parametersare stored in said advertisement placement parameter/command record andfurther comprising a tracking server for tracking of said website user'sactivity with respect to said advertisement, said tracking serverreceiving a query string sent by said advertisement with tracking datacollected based on said tracking parameters stored in said advertisementplacement parameter/command record and passed to said advertisement. 11.The method of claim 1, wherein said go-to page is a merchant websitepage and said website where said advertisement is presented is amarketing distributor website and said system is used for multi-levelmarketing.
 12. The method of claim 7, wherein said go-to page is amerchant website page and said website where said advertisement ispresented is a marketing distributor website and said system is used formulti-level marketing.
 13. The system of claim 9, wherein said go-topage is a merchant website page and said website where saidadvertisement is presented is a marketing distributor website and saidsystem is used for multi-level marketing.
 14. The method of claim 1,further comprising an interface for system users to create customizedsales and marketing materials for delivery to the website user that ispresented said advertisement.
 15. The method of claim 7, furthercomprising the step of providing an interface for system users to createcustomized sales and marketing materials for delivery to the websiteuser that is presented said advertisement.
 16. The system of claim 9,further comprising an interface for system users to create customizedsales and marketing materials for delivery to the website user that ispresented said advertisement.